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I’ve been playing around with two three-note chord grips or shapes for the C6/A7 low F tuning recently that have a really nice dark and smooth feeling to them. To me they sound a little more complex than a typical swing sixth “bar position” chord and are really easy to implement quickly. These help break me out of the same old first position playing or bar playing (i.e. Bb over the 10th fret.) I can’t use them with every song but if a song’s harmonic structure allows it, then it really sounds deep. I use my ear as the best judge. Great for a lot of western swing, jazz and blues.

Thelonious Monk’s Blue Monk seems to be a great piece to illustrate how this works. It’s chord structure is basically a 12-bar blues. I’ve recorded and tabbed out the head for both melody and rhythm tracks. I outline three grips overall. (No slanting!)

The Grips in the Melody:
The first one using strings 8, 5 and 3 (low to high) over the 5th fret in a Bb chord (or 1 chord). It uses chord tones: root, M7 and M3 (Bb, A and D.)

The second one using strings 7, 4 and 2 (low to high) over the 5th fret still over a Bb chord. It uses chord tones: M3, m7 and perfect 5 (D, C and F.)

I use one or sometimes both grips in measures one and two and measures five and six and the first grip each time at the end of the signature motive.

Rhythm Grips:
A third grip is used in the rhythm part and is easily applied to a thousand other blues or jazz pieces and another demonstration for the versatility of this tuning. And all three chords can be played just one or two frets from each other. The first chord: Bb7 (or I chord) uses strings 7, 6 and 4, (low to high) over the seventh fret. So that’s chord tones: 5b, 7 and M3 (E, G# and D).

Then moving to Eb7 (or IV chord) I move one fret down to the sixth fret. I stay on the same strings but the chord tones change. Now it’s 1, 3 and 7 (Eb, G and Db).

Eventually the F7 (or V chord) comes around and that’s one fret up from the Bb to the eight fret. Again, the same strings and again it’s chord tones 1, 3, 7 (F, A and Eb) .

Not many songs have haunted me like John Coltrane’s iconic Blue Train from his Blue Note album of the same name. It’s minimal melody and austere harmony set up an emotive head.

That said the piano chord harmonies are pretty complex for this country boy so I almost didn’t notice it’s a 12-bar blues – three chords. (But apparently Coltrane was really rooted in the blues.) A big thanks to Mike Neer’s responses on the Steel Guitar Forum for the support and advice to getting the chords right (or at least very close.) I had originally posted my audio with chords that were inaccurate and I was happy to be corrected. (Cm7 is not the same as an Eb7#9.) So hopefully I’m a lot closer now.

Note there are three parts to this arrangement (lead, harmony and rhythm) and that I tabbed all three parts into a single line of notation below for simplicity. In no way does my arrangement suggest bar slants starting on measure 13 – it’s just the two lines in harmony. The rhythm chords are intended to emulate the piano in the original arraignment’s head.

“After all the investigation, all of the technique-doesn’t matter! Only if the feeling is right.”― John Coltrane

This post was originally published at All Aboard the Blue Train. Bad I know, but I was exited to post. And as always please let me know if there’s something I’ve gotten wrong. My purpose here is to learn.

Here’s a quick sketch track and tabbed PDF (with related MIDI) for a recent favorite of mine. I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande is a Johnny Mercer song I love because it’s fairly easy but still different from typical steel guitar standards like Steel Guitar Rag, Panhandle Rag, etc. And though it’s popularity is up there with other big western swingers, I’d argue it’s not as obvious as Roly Poly and Rose of San Antone. But since it originated as a jazz pop tune back in the early 20th century, it’s both a western tune and a jazz pop standard. Killer.

And no wonder it’s so famous. What really catches me is how smooth and jazzy it sounds. And what I loved finding for myself was in terms of C6 lap steel approach the opening chord’s bar position feels like you are playing a 4 (G) chord over the seventh fret but you’re really playing a 2 (Em7) chord over the seventh fret. (Measure 2 in the tablature below.) To me, that is so cool and refreshing from standard 1, 4, 5 chord changes.

There’s lots of great versions of this song by western swing bands online but while I was doing my Spotify research I did come across the Sonny Rollins Way Out West album which this song is a part of and has really interested me ever since. It seems to me almost old hat for western/country musicians to take on jazz as inspiration but for a jazz musician to take on western/country as inspiration is really interesting to hear. I’ve taken some inspiration from Sonny’s head for my playing here but I aspire to play anything remotely similar to the solo section.

Low F Tuning for C6/A7
The C6 tuning version here has a low F (see tab) which enables us to land on different chord voicings in the melody than we’re used to normally playing with straight C6 chord positions. For example in measure 8 of the tab, instead of resolving on the predictable second fret 1 (D) chord, we are now landing on the 9 fret (D) chord (really it’s a Dmaj7 since its scale tones are bottom to top 1, maj7, and 5.) It still sounds “correct” and resolved but it also has a very dark-flavored voicing. All enabled by the low F.